Andreas Schleicher, the co-ordinator of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), strongly criticised Australia's school systems in a column in News Corp's broadsheet The Australian.

"Australia used to have one of the world's leading school systems, but in the past decade learning outcomes have dropped to levels closer to the average of school systems in the industrialised world," Andreas Schleicher, the co-ordinator of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), wrote.

Federal President of the Australian Education Union Correna Haythorpe responded to the claims by blaming federal education minister Simon Birmingham.

"With 87 per cent of public schools set to remain below the schooling resource standard even by 2023 under the Federal Government’s funding plan, Simon Birmingham is undermining the equity Andreas Schleicher has identified as vital not only to social justice, but to using resources effectively to boost the economy and benefit society," she said.

"The Federal Government is ripping $3 billion from public schools over the next two years alone, and he can’t expect that to not have consequences for student learning."

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Haythorpe argues the cuts will "disproportionately hit country children who are already facing learning challenges revealed by measures including NAPLAN and PISA".

"The equity question spans the whole of the public system, which the Federal Government is funding to only 20 percent of the schooling resource standard, as he funds often quite wealthy private schools to 80 percent," she said.

"That has to change. Unless it does, we will continue to see the kinds of concerning results that Andreas Schleicher has highlighted. Simon Birmingham is trying to sell slow-growth, low-ambition funding as enough funding, when it clearly isn’t."

Haythorpe's comments follow on from the assistant minister to the treasure, Michael Sukkar blasting the teacher's union for being a "roadblock" to the government's efforts to improve education quality.

Sukkar, told Sky News Birmingham and the government was "absolutely dedicated to the task of some of these tougher reforms that will help improve our standards, but again we’ve got a big roadblock in the way".

"The roadblock is the education union, the teachers’ federations who basically are now just political arms of the Labor Party and anything that is suggested by a Coalition government they will oppose, even if it’s in the best interests of students," he said according to a report in The Australian.

Nine.com.au has approached the Minister for Education Simon Birmingham for comment.